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Volume CXV April, 2007 No. 4
Published by the American Union of Swedish Singers
In its 115th year of Performing Svenska Sånger in America
The St. Paul Swedish Male Chorus has
had a busy spring. On March 25, the cho-rus
joined forces with the Metropolitan
Male Chorus of Becketwood Cooperative
(home of John Bjorkquist and Wayne
Johnson). Each chorus sang several num-bers,
and then both choruses joined togeth-er
in three final numbers. On April 3, the
chorus sang at Scandia Shores in Shore-view.
Then, they sang at Keystone Com-munity
Services on April 17 for their spring
potluck dinner.
The chorus’s 126th Spring Concert will
be held on Sunday, April 29 at 3:00 p.m. at
First Lutheran Church, 463 Maria Ave. N.,
St. Paul. The concert will be given in mem-ory
of Col. Stig Franzen of the Salvation
Army.
On May 6, the group will sing at North
Presbyterian Church in North St. Paul for a
celebration of the congregation. Another
concert with the Metropolitan Male Cho-rus
is in the planning stages.
The St. Paul Swedish Male Chorus now
has an assistant director. Andy Hennig was
appointed to this position at the beginning
of the year. He has been directing the prac-tices.
Andy joined the chorus in 1999 and
has been an active member ever since.
- from material submitted by Wayne Johnson
St. Paul Chorus News
The St. Paul Swedish Male Chorus performing at the Central Division Convention on Individual Chorus Night. Don Torgersen directs them while
Lynette Campbell is the accompanist. New assistant director Andy Hennig is on the left in the front row of singers.
This season is the 20th Anniversary of
Allen LeVines’ work with Stämbandet as
its music director. I sat down one Sunday
afternoon this winter and asked Allen to
reflect on his two decades of work with the
group. How has he seen us change? Grow?
Has his work with Stämbandet had any in-fluence
on how he teaches at Berklee Col-lege
of Music or on his work with his church
choir? What are the challenges? How does
he feel about Scandinavian music?
When you’re really close to something,
when you’re with Stämbandet once a week,
you may not be as aware of the growth as
much as someone who might hear the group
just once a year in the audience. But I lis-ten
to some early recordings now and then,
so I know we’ve come a long way. I think
maybe where we’ve come the furthest isn’t
necessarily evident in a concert, but what
we can achieve in rehearsal. We learn fast-er.
I’m sure the people in the group have
no idea how much faster learners they are.
We did simpler programs in the past, and
we did them well. I don’t think our best
concerts, say five years ago, would neces-sarily
be trumped by our best concerts now.
But I think the music was simpler and the
concerts were a bit shorter. That’s the big-gest
difference, I think.
Another difference is in the make-up of
the group. From 1986 to 1996, the group
was, maybe unrealistically, stable. The
number of new members we had in that
period was very small. It wasn’t every year,
maybe not even every three years, that we
had to replace a singer. From 1996 to 2006,
however, we’ve been a group in transition,
most of the time. This turn-over keeps the
sound of the group in flux. For example,
the early group never had problems in terms
of blend and cohesion and people knowing
what to expect from each other’s voices, and
how to fit your voices together. Now, we
constantly have to be on our toes about who
sings softer, who sings louder, and how we
blend.
There were two things that made me hap-py
to accept the position of music director
for Stämbandet when it was offered to me.
One was the group members’ abilities. Most
of them were amateur singers, and yet had
a better sound than most amateur groups.
That was really appealing. I also didn’t ex-pect
the music to have the appeal that it did
for me. I think that the tunes, the melo-dies,
are consistently strong musical state-ments,
more so than in many other cultures.
I didn’t have much experience with Scan-dinavian
music when I made those assess-ments,
but compared to a giant stack of Irish
or English or German or Spanish or French
melodies, I felt that a stack of Scandina-vian
melodies was uniquely and unusually
at a high level of quality.
An Interview with Allen LeVines
Music Director of Stämbandet
By Bisse Bowman
Stämbandet,Boston, MA
Kenneth R. A. Anderson and wife Vivian at Ken’s 84th birthday celebration
“Sir” Kenneth R. A. Anderson, in the ser-vice
of his majesty’s Royal Choral King-dom,
has been recognized for unusual de-votion
to a mighty cause. Let me tell the
story.
Kenneth’s father, Alfred Anderson, came
to America from Sweden as a young man
with a song in his heart, and the joy of life
abounding. In Portland, Oregon he found
a kindred spirit, Mia Fälldin, who became
his wife. Portland was the blessed ground
where Alfred and Mia settled and began
building a family of boys – Paul, Kenneth
and Bob (bass, baritone and tenor). When
the boys started developing their own sin-gular
voices, Alfred took them to a men’s
choral group of Swedish singers with whom
Kenneth Anderson and a Musical Family
By Bernice E. Bashlow
for the Scandinavian Male Chorus of Portland
he had been singing. It was quite a favor-ite
in the growing community of Scandina-vians
in Portland – a wonderful time for
Swedes in America. Does this sound like a
familiar American romantic tale? And it’s
true!
The American Union of Swedish Singers
published A Century of Song, by Lilly Set-terdahl,
a book that all members hold dear.
It is a 100-year history of the AUSS. I found
that the now Scandinavian Male Chorus of
Portland has had many names since it start-ed
in 1903 – the Columbia Singing Soci-ety,
the Columbia Male Chorus; the Swed-ish
Male Chorus; and the Svenska Man-skören.
Finally, in 1983, they settled on the
Scandinavian Male Chorus of Portland.
But think about it – Kenneth Anderson’s
father Alfred started the family tradition of
Director Allen LeVines reflects on 20 years
with Stämbandet
continued on page 9
continued on page 9

Volume CXV April, 2007 No. 4
Published by the American Union of Swedish Singers
In its 115th year of Performing Svenska Sånger in America
The St. Paul Swedish Male Chorus has
had a busy spring. On March 25, the cho-rus
joined forces with the Metropolitan
Male Chorus of Becketwood Cooperative
(home of John Bjorkquist and Wayne
Johnson). Each chorus sang several num-bers,
and then both choruses joined togeth-er
in three final numbers. On April 3, the
chorus sang at Scandia Shores in Shore-view.
Then, they sang at Keystone Com-munity
Services on April 17 for their spring
potluck dinner.
The chorus’s 126th Spring Concert will
be held on Sunday, April 29 at 3:00 p.m. at
First Lutheran Church, 463 Maria Ave. N.,
St. Paul. The concert will be given in mem-ory
of Col. Stig Franzen of the Salvation
Army.
On May 6, the group will sing at North
Presbyterian Church in North St. Paul for a
celebration of the congregation. Another
concert with the Metropolitan Male Cho-rus
is in the planning stages.
The St. Paul Swedish Male Chorus now
has an assistant director. Andy Hennig was
appointed to this position at the beginning
of the year. He has been directing the prac-tices.
Andy joined the chorus in 1999 and
has been an active member ever since.
- from material submitted by Wayne Johnson
St. Paul Chorus News
The St. Paul Swedish Male Chorus performing at the Central Division Convention on Individual Chorus Night. Don Torgersen directs them while
Lynette Campbell is the accompanist. New assistant director Andy Hennig is on the left in the front row of singers.
This season is the 20th Anniversary of
Allen LeVines’ work with Stämbandet as
its music director. I sat down one Sunday
afternoon this winter and asked Allen to
reflect on his two decades of work with the
group. How has he seen us change? Grow?
Has his work with Stämbandet had any in-fluence
on how he teaches at Berklee Col-lege
of Music or on his work with his church
choir? What are the challenges? How does
he feel about Scandinavian music?
When you’re really close to something,
when you’re with Stämbandet once a week,
you may not be as aware of the growth as
much as someone who might hear the group
just once a year in the audience. But I lis-ten
to some early recordings now and then,
so I know we’ve come a long way. I think
maybe where we’ve come the furthest isn’t
necessarily evident in a concert, but what
we can achieve in rehearsal. We learn fast-er.
I’m sure the people in the group have
no idea how much faster learners they are.
We did simpler programs in the past, and
we did them well. I don’t think our best
concerts, say five years ago, would neces-sarily
be trumped by our best concerts now.
But I think the music was simpler and the
concerts were a bit shorter. That’s the big-gest
difference, I think.
Another difference is in the make-up of
the group. From 1986 to 1996, the group
was, maybe unrealistically, stable. The
number of new members we had in that
period was very small. It wasn’t every year,
maybe not even every three years, that we
had to replace a singer. From 1996 to 2006,
however, we’ve been a group in transition,
most of the time. This turn-over keeps the
sound of the group in flux. For example,
the early group never had problems in terms
of blend and cohesion and people knowing
what to expect from each other’s voices, and
how to fit your voices together. Now, we
constantly have to be on our toes about who
sings softer, who sings louder, and how we
blend.
There were two things that made me hap-py
to accept the position of music director
for Stämbandet when it was offered to me.
One was the group members’ abilities. Most
of them were amateur singers, and yet had
a better sound than most amateur groups.
That was really appealing. I also didn’t ex-pect
the music to have the appeal that it did
for me. I think that the tunes, the melo-dies,
are consistently strong musical state-ments,
more so than in many other cultures.
I didn’t have much experience with Scan-dinavian
music when I made those assess-ments,
but compared to a giant stack of Irish
or English or German or Spanish or French
melodies, I felt that a stack of Scandina-vian
melodies was uniquely and unusually
at a high level of quality.
An Interview with Allen LeVines
Music Director of Stämbandet
By Bisse Bowman
Stämbandet,Boston, MA
Kenneth R. A. Anderson and wife Vivian at Ken’s 84th birthday celebration
“Sir” Kenneth R. A. Anderson, in the ser-vice
of his majesty’s Royal Choral King-dom,
has been recognized for unusual de-votion
to a mighty cause. Let me tell the
story.
Kenneth’s father, Alfred Anderson, came
to America from Sweden as a young man
with a song in his heart, and the joy of life
abounding. In Portland, Oregon he found
a kindred spirit, Mia Fälldin, who became
his wife. Portland was the blessed ground
where Alfred and Mia settled and began
building a family of boys – Paul, Kenneth
and Bob (bass, baritone and tenor). When
the boys started developing their own sin-gular
voices, Alfred took them to a men’s
choral group of Swedish singers with whom
Kenneth Anderson and a Musical Family
By Bernice E. Bashlow
for the Scandinavian Male Chorus of Portland
he had been singing. It was quite a favor-ite
in the growing community of Scandina-vians
in Portland – a wonderful time for
Swedes in America. Does this sound like a
familiar American romantic tale? And it’s
true!
The American Union of Swedish Singers
published A Century of Song, by Lilly Set-terdahl,
a book that all members hold dear.
It is a 100-year history of the AUSS. I found
that the now Scandinavian Male Chorus of
Portland has had many names since it start-ed
in 1903 – the Columbia Singing Soci-ety,
the Columbia Male Chorus; the Swed-ish
Male Chorus; and the Svenska Man-skören.
Finally, in 1983, they settled on the
Scandinavian Male Chorus of Portland.
But think about it – Kenneth Anderson’s
father Alfred started the family tradition of
Director Allen LeVines reflects on 20 years
with Stämbandet
continued on page 9
continued on page 9